MANILA, Philippines - Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said on Monday that the Commission on Audit should investigate the alleged bribery of lawmakers during the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Santiago said the additional funds that were received by some senators during and just after the Corona trial constituted bribery under the Penal Code.
She said every senator who voted to convict, and every representative who voted to indict, if each one is shown to have received additional pork during and immediately after the impeachment trial, are presumably guilty of bribery due to the close timing between the two events.
Santiago, a constitutional law expert, added that under the Penal Code, each senator or representative was guilty of the crime of "knowingly rendering unjust judgment."
The alleged bribery during the Corona trial was exposed by Senator Jinggoy Estrada in a privilege speech last week on the allegations related to the multi-billion pork barrel scam.
Estrada said those who voted to convict Corona received an additional P50 million in funds.
Senate President Franklin Drilon, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and Malacañang have denied that the additional funds were form of bribes.
Read: Senators got P1.1 B on top of ‘pork’ funds
“These fund releases have recently been touted as ‘bribes,’ ‘rewards,’ or ‘incentives.’ They were not," DBM Secretary Butch Abad said in a statement over the weekend.
He said the additional releases, which were mostly for infrastructure projects, were part of what is called the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) designed by the DBM to ramp up spending and help accelerate economic expansion.
DAP releases
But Santiago is also questioning the legality of the DAP, saying it violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
The feisty senator said the DAP releases from the executive branch were unconstitutional as they "played favorites" among senators.
"I would like to know in particular if it is legal for the budget department to discriminate among senators. While all other senators received an average of P50 million, reportedly three senators got P100 million each. They are Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, Sen. Franklin Drilon, and Sen. Francis Escudero," Santiago said.
In a televised press briefing on Monday, Malacanang said the DAP was already suspended at the time the President suspended lawmakers' pork barrel.